[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
Desideratus15 wrote:
ajcook99 wrote:
- Sprint work before playing open gym. My guys do what we call 18/16 before starting the games. 18 widths of the court in 60 seconds with a 60 second break and then 16 widths in 60 seconds. I have them do sprints before playing to pre-exhaust them and get them used to playing in a fatigued state.
This isn’t sprint work though. This is, in my opinion, pointless conditioning. Playing basketball gets you in game shape by itself. If you want them to play in a fatigued state why not have them play up-tempo or for a longer duration.
Agreed, 5 nights at 2 hours of open gym is also overload and at some point can be detrimental to some kids.
It depends on the athlete though, so I’m not going to make a general prediction. For instance, for many of the kids that train with me, I specifically instruct them NOT to go to some of these coach-run “conditioning” or workout sessions to “get in shape.” Why? Because with proper year-round training, you never get out of shape!
To a various degree, you should always be “in shape” for your sport. For instance, if a basketball player plays high school ball, they should certainly be in shape by the end of the season. Then when winter season ends, many of them are playing AAU ball or doing other sort of training.
As long as they are performing a maintenance load of conditioning work or up-tempo full-court play (which can be as little as once a week), they can stay at the point where they might only need 6-8 conditioning workouts, which can easily be done in 2 weeks of the pre-season, to get pretty much in full game shape. Remember, you don’t need to be able to play 4 quarters in July, you need that in October/November.
Body fat also comes into play here. It’s pretty damn easy to get somebody who’s 10% body fat into shape.[/quote]
I work with a 15 y.o. player who plays ball year round and been for about 5-6 yrs. When he started w/ me, he had huge flexibility issues. We sent him to a great local hospital where he was seen by a orthopedist.
This physician recommeded 10-12 wks of physical therapy to correct muscular imbalances and very poor flexibility that he said likely resulted in large part from playing ball all the time at the expense of other activities.
This kid is a high D-1 prospect. He is getting looks from big schools like UCLA, Arizona, Oregon State, Notre Dame, Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, you get the point. Well he was always rated down by scouts because he is not “bouncy” (he wasn’t dunking).
Well everyone said he needed to get stronger. So he worked on his squat and other core lifts the strength and conditioning coach has him and his teammates doing. And he definitley got stronger.
This 15 y.o. is 6’4" and 195 chiselled pounds at well under 10% bodyfat. I’ve played with this kid. If he fouls you, you know it…for days. Try to run him over, you’re gonna think twice before doing it again he is that solid. But he was he still wasn’t dunking until well into his work with the P-T.
Well, about the 8th or 9th wk into the PT, things really began to click for him athletically. Now he dunks with ease, gets down very low in a defensive stance, has much better lateral quickness and is faster.
The P-T had him strengthen his glutes with various hips lifts, his hips with variations of the “clamshell” and some unusual bodyweight squat exercises, his core with various forms of bridging.He was prescribe static stretching positions for his hamstrings.
He was also given a foam roller to use daily, especially after any workout and told be sure to hit the I-T Band. He was advised in no uncertain terms that he was headed for injury if he did not take P-T seriously. Obviously he did. He continues to. He is a believer.
I say all this to say that just playing and lifting all the time without addressing the imbalances this creates in the body is limiting the athletic performance of young athletes. For this kid, the crucial pieces were increasing ROM in certain areas and strengthening the posterior chain. Correct attention to these factors helped unlock the stored athletic potential created by the strength work.
